It all pointed to this

The Urawa Reds is a club you either love or hate, whilst Vegalta Sendai right now feels like it's everyone's second team (for obvious reasons). So when the Reds faced off against Sendai, in Sendai none the less, it was evident who most wanted to win. You know what the Reds obliged with the universe's request.

Like I mentioned last week, the Reds' have a habit of losing a game that we would be expected to win. After last week's victory, most Reds fans was expecting a result against Sendai, so that would mean the 1-0 lost was a gimme.

So what went wrong for the Reds? We just weren't able to find the back of the net. The chances were there, but nothing was connecting. At the end of the day if you can't score, you don't win. Enough said; this is how the Reds' lined up

GK: Yamagishi
DF: Takahashi; Spiranovic; Nagata; Ugajin
MF: Yamada (No); Kashiwagi; Richardes
FW: Tatsuya; Haraguchi; Edmilson

Subs
HT Tatsuya > Takasaki
69min Yamada > Mazola
85min Ugajin > Noda

I don't want to dwell on the lost, but I do want to say that it was good to see football played in Sendai again. From what I can tell Yurtec stadium was buzzing and seeing 18,000+ in attendance is a good sign that Sendai is getting back on her feet.

Welcomed back with a nice win

So after almost 2 month absence; the J-League is back! With that URDBLOG is back! Can you sense my excitement! It's been a while since I've blogged on a consistent basis and I should have blogged during what was the second pre-season but I didn't. So lets not dwell on my silence and lets look forward to what's ahead.

So the season resumed in Section 7; which pitted the Reds against defending champions Nagoya Grampus. If I'm completely honest I was expecting a draw at best, but the best thing about the J-League is you can always expect the unexpected. As a Reds' fan this shouldn't be any surprise. So when we came away with a 3-0 win, the first thing I had to remind myself, is not to get to far ahead in my expectations.

Yes it was a good win and the we performed fairly well, but it is just a game in the whole grand scheme of things; 32 more games to be exact. The Reds are capable of putting a good game together, but usually this happens when we don't expect it to happen. When we need a good performance for a result, in the past few years it hasn't happened. From this result though it appears that the team is gelling together quiet nicely, maybe it's the extra time the team have had together, but whatever it is we're playing as a team and moving in the right direction.

Marcio (12min), Tatsuya (25min) and Haraguchi (78min) were the goal scorers for the Reds and hopefully is a sign of things to come for the Reds. A potent attack and a solid defence. As much as the result gets me excited, look at Eji's new hair (see last picture above #9). Funky new look for the Eji and hopefully a new look for the Reds.

This is how the Reds lined up:

GK: Yamagishi
DF: Takahashi; Spiranovic; Nagata; Ugajin
MF: Yamada (No); Kashiwagi; Richardes
FW: Haraguchi; Tatasuya; Edmilson

Subs
80min Tatsuya > Escudero
84min Yamada > Aoyama
84min Haraguchi > Mazola

Up next for the Reds is a trip to Sendai on Friday; which for obvious reasons will be an emotional match, but hopefully where we can come out of it with another 3 points.